In various time-based games and the like, inexpensive clock mechanisms are unsatisfactory for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the continuous distraction they present due to ticking and like audible effects of jointly moving parts. Thus, in games involving the completion of mental activity within a prescribed time period, the provision of a distracting indication, i.e., a sound, is evidently desirable only at the expiration of the involved time period. In addition to their continuous distraction, inexpensive clock mechanisms have generally inadequate durability and are often the one element of a game determining the period of usefulness thereof.
Timing apparatus of the type in which a body is movable through a viscous fluid to measure preselected time intervals is well known in the art, as evidenced typically in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,714,927, 3,025,665, 3,111,004, 3,166,839, 3,240,007 and 3,533,229. These devices, simple in structure, durable and relatively inexpensive, are completely noiseless in operation, to the extent of providing no output indication of the expiration of the measured time period. Thus, it is incumbent upon the user to observe the movement of the body at the end of its travel to determine the ending of the time period. A further shortcoming of such known noiseless devices, insofar as they are adapted to measure different time intervals, is their requirement for structure parent to the fluid-containing housing thereof for tilting the same to define an off-vertical descent path for the movable body.